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They’d all found their coping strategies after they lost Knuckles.
Sonic wandered. Their house was home base of course, but it wasn’t unusual for him to not come home, sometimes for days at a time. He was always there when they called him, but otherwise he was living free and vibing. But… Tails wasn’t sure. He kind of wondered if Sonic felt guilty for what happened to Knuckles. Tails sure felt that way sometimes. Or… maybe Sonic just felt weird around Little Knux.
Sonic had been really hopeful, when the Master Emerald left them with an echidna egg, that Knuckles was just getting ‘restarted’. That had been one of the theories Tails had posited: that the Enerjak had been like a computer virus that left Knuckles too damaged; he had to be reset to factory settings. But Sonic thought it would be Knuckles. Memories and personality in-tact. It was part of why he insisted they keep Knuckles’ name.
After Little Knux hatched, it had taken Sonic the longest to realize that Little Knux was just a regular baby. Knuckles’ genetic copy, sure, but otherwise a regular echidna baby. Sonic took it the hardest too, once he realized Knuckles would never come back. Even Wade took it better. Tails didn’t live with Wade though, so he might have been wrong about that.
He wasn’t quite sure how Mom and Dad coped. They’d had their hands so full with the baby. Then said baby grew into a superpowered toddler. Mom especially, as the vet and their unofficial doctor, had taken charge of trying to figure out how to raise an extinct, alien species from an egg. Dad had mostly been all caught up trying to get Sonic and Wade through it.
Tails found himself in a surprising position: replacing Knuckles as the family guardian. He set up security devices and traps around the house. Tapped into CCTV around town, gradually expanding his network so he could even monitor G.U.N. They’d never try to destroy Knuckles again on Tails’ watch. Even after six years, it was still all a work in progress though.
Tails was perfecting their home security. The goal was for the system to be able to recognize people who were and weren’t supposed to be in the house. Once he was completely satisfied with that, he could expand: set up defenses to target intruders instead of just alerting them to their presence. He had a beta version of the program running (set to silent-mode so it wouldn’t wake Mom and Dad, who probably thought Tails was asleep right now).
Tails sat in what used to be Dad’s garage, but was now his workshop. Monitors filled the back wall, inventions hung up on either side of him. He’d gotten a fancy, ergonomic chair for Christmas, and he was thankful. Typing out code all night wasn’t great for the back.
The beta system chirped–the signal that a friendly had been spotted. Tails looked up and saw Little Knux peeking out of the attic hatch. He must have needed a glass of water or something. The tiny echidna lingered for a moment. The automatic night lights Tails had set up finally caught his movement and flicked on. With the hall illuminated, Little Knux headed down the stairs.
Tails chuckled under his breath. It was funny that Little Knux was scared of the dark. He’d never had a reason to fear anything. Nothing bad or dangerous had ever happened to him. They’d made sure of that. This time, the last echidna was growing up comfortable and safe. Tails didn’t know about the others, but to him, it was almost a way to honor Knuckles’ memory–seeing his reincarnation safely through life.
Tails pulled up his notes on a separate screen and recorded the time and the program's successful response. After a swig of coffee, he went back to his coding.
A moment later another alarm beeped at him. Tails froze. That was for the front door. His gaze moved unerringly toward the front door cam. Little Knux was peering outside with the same trepidation as when he’d peered out of the attic hatch. The security light over the door flicked on and he marched right out.
In a moment Tails was out of his chair and snatching a weapon off the wall. He shouldered the garage’s side door open, ignoring the beep of another alarm as he did so. His stride was much longer than Little Knux’s and he was moving faster, his little brother had barely left the front steps before Tails was on him.
“Knux?” He asked. “What’s wrong?”
“Gah!” Knuc jumped at his sudden appearance. “Don’t scare me!” His quills bristled, but at half Tails’ height he didn’t cut a very intimidating figure.
Tails’ ear twitched. “I’m sorry I scared you,” he said quickly. “But what’s wrong?”
His little brother shrank slightly. “I had a bad dream. I knew you’d be up.”
“Oh.” Tails’ flushed under his fur. “Okay… But you shouldn’t go outside alone at night. Even by the house. There’s bears and stuff out here.” Tails tucked his weapon into the holster at his hip and held out a hand. Little Knux stepped into his space obligingly and Tails led him back to the garage, one hand around his little brother’s shoulders.
Tails was no stranger to sitting up with Little Knux. He was something of an insomniac and his little brother had bad dreams sometimes. Nothing put him back down again like the sound of Tails typing.
Tails sat in his chair and Little Knux crawled up onto his lap. It was weird to think it, but ‘Little’ Knux was almost too big to sit in his lap now. His head didn’t comfortably tuck under Tails’ chin like it used to. His little brother squirmed, poking him repeatedly, until he’d gotten himself positioned so he was in Tails’ lap, but not completely in his way. Tails kind of missed when he could carry him around on his hip. It was strange to think that one day Little Knux, he would be taller than Tails just like Knuckles used to be…
Focus. Tails got back to work on his coding. Little Knux watched the characters file across the screen, blinking sluggishly. He didn’t say anything for a long time. Tails wondered if he might have just fallen asleep.
“Can you have the same dream more than once?” He asked suddenly.
“Yeah,” Tails said absently, fingers gliding over the keyboard. “They’re called ‘recurring dreams’.”
“Oh.”
Little Knux was quiet for a long time. Again, Tails wondered if he’d fallen back asleep when he spoke: “Can you have the same nightmare more than once?”
Tails’ hands paused. “You can. That would be a recurring nightmare.” That sounded like something that should be talked about. He saved his work and leaned back in his chair, giving Knux his attention. “Do you have a recurring nightmare?”
Knux didn’t meet his eyes. He focused on his new gloves instead. They were a gift from Wade: custom boxing gloves just like Knuckles used to have–except the spikes were a lot smaller. Little Knux fiddled with them for a moment. Tails waited. Little Knux seemed to have inherited Knuckles’ hesitancy to open up, but unlike his predecessor, Knux would talk if you just waited.
Eventually, he nodded. “I dream that there’s this… really scary ghost echidna?”
Tails fought to control his expression. A ghost echidna? Really? But no, he had to take Little Knux’s fears seriously. Tails had been scared of plenty of things when he was that age. He nodded solemnly to show Knux he understood his very legitimate concern.
“The ghost does a magic spell that makes a monster appear.”
Scary! For a five-and-a-half-year-old.
“Then the monster crawls inside my head and eats me! I try to run away and sometimes I escape into this big green light, but sometimes… it gets me.”
Tails opened his mouth. He knew he should say something, but his mind was years ago. He could see Knuckles writhing. Tears rolling down cheeks stretched tight from screaming. Throwing his head back, his deep voice shrill with terror: “ It’s eating me! It’s eating me! ”
“Tails?”
Tails’ whole body shuddered. Little Knux was staring at him. His wide eyes were even wider with concern. Tails had to get it together. He was the big brother now, he couldn’t scare Knux with his baggage. He scrunched his eyes tight, trying to chase his last, horrifying memories of Knuckles from his mind. Then he did what he always did when he needed to be better than himself: he pretended to be Sonic.
He shook his head so hard, his ears flapped. “Brrr!” He smiled. “Sorry buddy, I’ve been staring at that screen too long! I almost fell asleep with my eyes open!”
Knux took the bait. He narrowed his eyes. “You can’t fall asleep with your eyes still open.”
Tails quirked an eyebrow. “Not with that attitude.”
His little brother giggled.
“Tell you what–” Tails clicked a few things, turning off the beta program and closing down his main systems for the night. “How about you show me the right way to sleep? Let’s get to bed. And if you have that nightmare again… well you can tell me.” Tails wrapped his arms around Knux and squeezed him. “I would never let a monster get you.” Not again.
Knux hugged him back. He was being gentle but he still cracked Tails’ back. Tails let out a grunt of laughter and stood, Little Knux in his arms.
“Oof, you’ve got to stop growing if you want me to keep carrying you.”
“I don’t want you to carry me!” Little Knux squirmed and Tails was quick to set him on his feet. “I’m a big kid now!” he loudly announced. He turned and led the march back up to the house.
“Yeah, you are,” Tails agreed as he followed.
Little Knux was a big kid who still couldn’t climb the stairs properly. But, in his defense, they were as tall as his knees and his feet were determined to grow too big for him. Tails shuffled dutifully behind him as his little brother climbed the steps up to their room like he was scaling a mountain.
He did his best to keep his mind occupied, to not let memories of the past creep in. To not let his fears take hold.
That had to be a memory. A ‘ghost echidna’ could describe Finitevus. And the monster…
Tails checked under Knux’ bed, an old habit by now. There was nothing there of course. Real monsters didn’t hide under beds.
Why did Knux have to remember that ? Was he going to regain Knuckles’ memories after all? Did Tails… want that? They’d put so much care and love into him, would all that be erased for a childhood of horrors? Would he stop being Knux if he got Knuckles’ memories?
He held back the covers as Knux crawled into bed, tucking the blanket in around him. The attic was softly illuminated by the fairy lights Sonic had strung up so many years ago. Now they acted as a nightlight. A few had died out over time, but there were still enough to make Knux’ eyes twinkle as he smiled up at him. Tails smiled back and brushed a hand over the safe patch on Knux’ forehead before the quills started.
Was Enerjak still alive in Knux, somewhere? Or had the Master Emerald just failed to scrub all of Knuckles’ memories away? Or… had Enerjak’s possession left such a scar on Knuckles’ soul that even his reincarnation remembered it?
“Sweet dreams, Tails.” Knux yawned, his eyes sliding closed.
“Sweet dreams, Knux.” Tails dropped into his own bed and pulled the covers tight around him, rolling away from his little brother.
The only thing that Tails knew for sure was that after this, he would be the one having nightmares.